2017 JKU Rubicon Rhino - All Purpose Build

BigBad408

Observer
The Jeep was loaded up and traveled from San Antonio, TX to Charlotte, NC. Not Overland. It's 18 hours on the Interstate at 80mph. The Jeep was burdened by a hideous purple 75lb suitcase belonging to my wife and daughter, who would be visiting colleges while I disappeared into the mountains with some friends.

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The weather didn't cooperate for our plans in the northern NC mountains the early part of the week. Snow, low 20's and high winds weren't on our list of things to enjoy. We were there to have fun, not "tough it out". I will say that my offroad experience level is roughly zero on a scale of 0-100. So my friends decided we would hit a trail called flatlands in northern Georgia. In the rain. Georgia red clay is known for it's traction when wet. Oh, and then they said "it's probably the toughest trail we'll do all week". Great....

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As we dropped into the trail I was pretty uncomfortable. I was very familiar with Georgia red clay and its traction levels when wet from years of racing motocross in the southeast. I think my nervousness was sensed as the CB lit up with "Just follow my lines, I have the least capable jeep here. If I can do it you can". In my head I thought "more capable Jeep does not make up for incapable driver...."

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Had I walked the trail beforehand I honestly think I would have refused to go down it. But once we were in, we were in. Once we got to the bottom I could not believe my Jeep had just went down that like it was nothing. Then they wanted to go back up. It went back up like it was nothing. This was Georgia clay. It was raining. It was greased snot. It was STEEP. There were big ruts and spots where you were leaned so far that the mirror was inches off the trail wall to the right or left. The Jeep did not care. Day 1 and the Jeep had mud and it's driver was confident that the Jeep was far more capable than it's driver.
 

theksmith

Explorer
...Had I walked the trail beforehand I honestly think I would have refused to go down it. But once we were in, we were in...

with east coast red clay, you probably couldn't have walked it without falling on your ***** a couple times!

sounds like a fun time though. love the suitcase, it really contrasts well with the Rhino color! ;)
 

BigBad408

Observer
So it has been a bit, but the Jeep incurred some damage this past weekend while wheeling at Means Dry Lake (location of King of the Hammers). We were keeping the wheeling fairly low key, the desert had received over 2" of rain the night before and had rain ruts/washes at low points. After wheeling for a bit, we had encountered about a dozen of these ruts and they were pretty consistent. Until they weren't. We hit one at about 10mph and it brought the Jeep to a dead stop. Knocked my sunglasses clean off my face. Climbing out of the low point the steering wheel was at 9o'clock in order to go straight and there were bad noises coming from the front end. Long story short the Jeep limped the 300 miles home to Phoenix and the next day a good hard look at it in the garage revealed what I was afraid of. Front axle housing passenger side bent both up and back toward the rear of the vehicle, drag link and tie rod bent, possibly passenger control arms. Pictures below. So with that being said, new parts will be added to the build. A Dynatrac Prorock 44 Ultimate will be replacing the stock Dana 44. Steer Smarts will provide the new drag link and tie rod. Because the front axle has to come out and I want just a little bit more from my suspension, Clayton Off-Road's 3.5" Premium Lift Kit will replace the Mopar 2" springs and stock control arms.

Check out the passenger front wheel...ouch. 300 miles home and it drove just fine.

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